The French Directory orders General of Division Jean-Baptiste Jourdan with the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse and General of Division Jean-Charles Pichegru with the Army of Rhin-et-Moselle to launch a pincer attack across the Rhine against Feldmarschall Count of Clerfayt's Austrian army in the summer of 1795.

Jourdan is instructed to cross to the north near Düsseldorf while Pichegru crosses anywhere between Mannheim and Strasbourg in the south.

His army crosses the Rhine north of Düsseldorf on September 8.

Wheeling to the right, the Army of Sambre-et-Meuse strikes south and moves forward to the Lahn River by September 20.

On the 21st, the Bavarian garrison at Düsseldorf capitulates to General of Division François Joseph Lefebvre and twelve thousand six hundred French troops.

Count Hompesch's two thousand-man garrison is allowed to march home after promising not to fight the French for one year.

The city and its one hundred and sixty-eight fortress guns become French prizes.

In the south, Pichegru finds his army blocked by General der Kavallerie Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser's Austrian army.

Pichegru moves north until he is across from Mannheim and demands its surrender.

Baron von Belderbusch enters into negotiations with the French and surrenders Mannheim and four hundred and seventy-one guns on September 20.

His ninety-two hundred-man Bavarian garrison is allowed to march home.

The Austrians feel betrayed by their allies, but can only protest as their enemies gain a key bridgehead.